USS George H.W. Bush has embarked on its maiden deployment

The USS George H.W. Bush, the United States’ newest aircraft carrier, has embarked on its maiden deployment under the leadership of the first woman to ever command a carrier strike group.

As strike group commander, Rear Adm. Nora Tyson will be responsible for roughly 6,000 sailors aboard five ships as well as eight aircraft squadrons.

“The world is pretty unpredictable right now. And as we tell our sailors every day, we need to be prepared for any contingency. So it’s all about readiness,” she told reporters last week before Wednesday’s deployment. “If you watch the news every day it’s pretty unpredictable from one day to the next.”

It is the first deployment of the USS Bush and the USS Truxton.

“It’s a pretty historic cruise because it’s the first for those two ships but it’s also the year of our centennial of naval aviation, so that’s a milestone and it’s pretty special for us to be deploying this year specifically,” Tyson said.

Former President George H.W. Bush watches the commissioning of his namesake naval vessel. (Smiley Pool / Houston Chronicle)

The USS Bush is named in honor of the 41st president, who attended its commissioning in January 2009.

Tyson has background in Naval aviation, earning her wings as a naval flight officer in 1983, four years after the Memphis, Tenn. native entered the Navy following graduation at Vanderbilt University.

Among other assignments, Tyson has served as director of staff for Naval Forces Europe and most recently as commander of a logistics group in the western Pacific.

“I’ve been fortunate during my career that the laws for women serving in the military have changed at the right time for me during my career that ultimately I’m able to be here and command this strike group,” Tyson said. “I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel and to have the team that I have, with the leadership that I have, the sailors that I have, you know, it really is a phenomenal honor for me to be here.”

The strike group is led by the nuclear-powered USS George H.W. Bush, which is being tasked with supporting maritime security in Europe and the Middle East over the next six months, although it isn’t uncommon for cruises to be extended due to world events.

The carrier is the last ship of the 10-carrier Nimitz class and was commissioned in 2009. It has been training with the other four ships in the strike group for the past nine months in preparation for the deployment.

Other ships on the deployment include the Mayport, Fla.-based guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg and the Norfolk-based USS Anzio, as well as Norfolk-based guided-missile destroyers USS Truxton and USS Mitscher.